1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hand or utility carts used by persons for transporting goods or personal belongings, and more particularly to collapsible hand or utility carts having multiple levels of containment for holding such goods or belongings.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known that shopping carts, of the kind typically found in supermarkets, department stores or other such stores where consumers select goods from in-store shelving and displays, have been used as vehicles for transporting merchandise purchased at those markets to and from the purchasers automobiles. It is also well-known that many purchasers, especially those persons who do not have automobiles or who reside in low-income areas, are prone to using the shopping carts for transporting their purchased goods to their residences or at the very least to their neighborhoods where they are able to unload their purchases and keep the carts in the ready for the next time it is necessary to return to those markets.
However, the removal of shopping carts from market premises by patrons or shoppers is a situation that has not been met with great favor, both in the industry and in the community, and a multitude of solutions for preventing the removal of such carts from the market premises have been devised. Among those currently most favored by the industry are electronically triggered devices which cause the wheels of the cart to lock up when the cart is pushed or otherwise moved past a pre-installed boundary, which typically takes the form of a buried electronically triggering cable disposed about the perimeter of the market's parking lot or premises.
Examples of such systems are embodied in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,054,923 and 6,271,755 issued to Prather et al. Those patents disclose a shopping cart system that incorporates a disabling mechanism that renders the cart's swivel wheels inoperative upon actuation of a disabling signal from the cable. The '755 patent further teaches a shopping cart disabling system which, when triggered, makes available only a pair of wheels that enables movement of the cart, but only in a circular direction. The object of that invention is to make it impossible for a person to remove the cart from the store's premises by rolling it away.
Other theft thwarting systems have been developed and are well known, as that taught by U.S. Pat. No. 3,717,225 to Rashbaum, which discloses a piston rod and wheel lock device that includes a frame mounted actuator that locks one of the wheels of the cart upon actuation via a disabling signal, and various electronically actuated wheel locking devices, as exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,315,290 to Moreno, U.S. Pat. No. 6,127,927 to Durban et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,037,869 to Lace, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,125,972 to French et al.
One of the objectives of this invention to enable an alternative means of transporting purchased goods when shopping cart removal from a market's premises is thwarted. The present invention offers shoppers a user-propelled mobile device for transporting purchased goods from the market to their homes, and further to be able to take this mobile device back to the market for another shopping experience after which the same need to bring the purchased goods home can be again fulfilled. Concurrent with this aim, the invention embraces a scheme that rewards shoppers for using the mobile device of the invention for transporting purchased goods home instead of removing the market's shopping carts from the market's premises for that purpose.
Personal carts for transporting groceries or other personal items have been in use for some time. Typically, such personal carts have a single basket or container supported on or atop a wheeled base, and may additionally be able to be collapsed or otherwise folded to reduce the volume for storage when not in use.
Personal carts have also been developed which can be collapsed or folded so as to be easily storable. Examples of such carts are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,339,141 to Thiboutot and U.S. Pat. No. 4,185,848 to Holtz.
And in an effort to enable a shopper to transport increased amounts of goods from the store to the shopper's home or other destination, shopping carts with more than a single basket or container have been developed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,126,181 to Ondrasik shows a conventional shopping cart frame on which are mounted stepped, offset, baskets, U.S. Pat. No. 4,047,724 to Shaffer shows a collapsible utility cart having a plurality of detachable baskets and stair-climbing capabilities, and U.S. Pat. No. D407,882 to Duchene teaches a shopping cart having a frame that is designed for supporting two removable baskets, one atop the other.
Applicants are also aware of the cart disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,774,929 to Stanley which comprises a collapsible wheeled cart having a single basket on the top of which is carried an auxiliary carrying section which also is collapsible, but which is separate from and not permanently attached to the frame of the wheeled cart. Moreover, the upper basket and lower baskets do not close simultaneously with a single upward pivoting movement, as do the baskets in applicants' invention.
The foregoing carts are intended for use in the market and about the market premises. No personal carts having simultaneously collapsible baskets, with the exception of the carts disclosed in applicants' own published pending patent applications (USSN 20020167139 and USSN 20020083612), are known which are designed for use by the shopper outside of the market premises. Applicants' personal carts in the above referenced pending patent applications are multi-level collapsible carts wherein the upper and lower baskets are pivotably hinged to the frame of the cart, and can be collapsed together.
In applicants' prior collapsible carts as disclosed in the pending applications referred to above, the cart is secured in the fully erected position by a latching mechanism carried by the handle of the cart. However, it has been found that sometimes, when the loads are particularly heavy, these carts, like many other collapsible carts known in the art, have a tendency to collapse when they are pulled up stairs.
The preceding examples of carts and personal carts also have limitations as far as their carrying capabilities for purchased goods, and it is clear that there is a need for a personal cart that has significantly greater storage capacity, as for example one which has more than one storage compartment, where the contents of each storage compartment are each uniquely accessible and which will enable shoppers who have purchased their goods to transport their goods from the market to their home in a single trip without the use of motor vehicles. Such a cart must also be collapsible so that storage of the collapsed cart is facilitated as well. The present invention provides a solution to such a need for the shopper as well as the market.
There is also a need for such a cart to be sufficiently inexpensive to the shopper so that the shopper will be induced to acquire the cart in advance of shopping at the market. The present invention contemplates a plan or method for providing carts to the shoppers that benefits not only the shoppers, but the markets and vendors of the markets as well. This method contemplates the sale of the carts to the shoppers with subsequent rebates or discounts running to the shoppers for products or services offered by vendors of the markets as rewards to the shoppers for having purchased the carts.
In one aspect of the invention, there is provided a multi-level personal utility cart including a frame with a handle having a rearwardly positioned upper portion, side portions, and a forwardly extending lower portion, a first basket assembly pivotably supported to the frame, a second basket assembly disposed atop the first basket assembly and pivotably supported to the frame, where the first and second basket assemblies are simultaneously pivotable on the frame toward the handle upper portion so that the first and second basket assemblies can be collapsed against a portion of the frame into a compact and substantially planar structure.
In another aspect of the invention, there is provided a collapsible personal utility cart including upper and lower baskets pivotably mounted to a frame, in which the baskets are both pivotable from fully opened positions upwardly and toward the rear portion of the cart handle, and are both pivotably deployable from the fully collapsed position downwardly to a fully opened position, and further in which the cart includes a positive locking mechanism which secures the cart in an opened position.
In another aspect of the invention, a hand-propelled or pushed personal shopping cart is provided which includes multiple levels of storage within corresponding multiple, yet separate, storage chambers, with independent access to each chamber.
In another aspect of the invention, a personal shopping cart is provided which is collapsible, inexpensive to manufacture, and inexpensive to own as well.
In yet another aspect of the invention, the shopping cart is easily storable in its collapsed condition.
In still another aspect of the invention, the shopping cart will enable shoppers to own and possess a very affordable personal shopping cart with which they can take to their local shopping market, and into which they can load their purchased goods for subsequent check-out and then transport to their respective residences.
In still another aspect of the invention, a method for deterring theft of “conventional” shopping carts is provided in which shoppers are encouraged to use the “non-conventional” carts of the invention which are sold to the shoppers by markets, and discounts or rebates are made available to the shoppers by vendors who advertise and promote their goods and/or services available at the shopping markets.
Various objects, advantages and features of the invention will become more apparent, as will equivalent structures which are intended to be covered herein, with the teaching of the principles of the invention in connection with the disclosure of the preferred embodiments thereof in the specification, claims and drawings in which: